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Thursday, April 13, 2017

The moment we move from simply reading and ingesting the information that is given to us, accepting it word for word, and we start to ask, "is what I'm reading or hearing true? Is it correct?" we have taken a massive leap towards the goal of being a free and independent thinker.

But some people that think they are free thinkers may not be as critical as they believe. They may not know what they do not know. They may, instead, ask questions about some things, but not about others.

The person who questions one party in a conversation or debate and not the other has already chosen his side.

Friday, February 3, 2017

In an attempt to bring a more conversational tone and the ability to analyze more creative topics--sometimes merely tangentially related to mountain biking--on Singletracks.com, I recently started a weekly column titled "Over a Beer."

By recently, I mean back in April 2016, so this weekly column has been going for quite a while now, and has seen 38 installments (as of the beginning of February, 2017).

In my opinion, it's been one of the best projects I've launched in a very long time!

Here's some more background on this column:

Introductory Post

You may have clicked on this article while asking yourself, “what the heck does he mean, ‘Over a Beer?’ I’m so not “over” beer—give me all the beers! I need more beers in my life!” No, you’ve got it all wrong. By “Over a Beer,” I’m referring to having a conversation, over a beer.

So often a person I am “friends” with posts something hyper-political, opinionated, or otherwise incendiary on Facebook, but instead of commenting back angrily, if it’s somebody that I actually care about, I ask them, “hey, do you want to go talk over a beer?” Because I would always rather sit down and get face-to-face with a friend and have a true heart-to-heart discussion, instead of exchanging context-less Facebook comments. It’s been my experience that those conversations are almost always interesting, beneficial, and end with the two of us still friends. A Facebook battle, on the other hand, rarely ends well.

I would personally love to chat over a beer with the amazing members here in the Singletracks community! I’ve corresponded with so many of you for so long that I consider you friends, even if we’ve never met face-to-face before.

But the reality is, I may never get to talk one-on-one with many of you—after all, there are about a million of you that use this website every month! So, I decided that I wanted to sit down with you all virtually, and talk “over a beer,” so to speak.

To achieve this dialogue, I’m launching a weekly column titled—you guessed it—“Over a Beer.” In this column I’ll share my opinions on various topics in the world of mountain biking, my observations, and my ruminations. Basically, I’m going to tackle any and every mountain bike-related topic that we might actually talk about if we met up and had a beer.

Fair warning: these columns probably won’t be fully-developed opinion pieces like this one. They probably won’t be well-argued dissertations like this one. Rather, you’ll be getting my thoughts and opinions in a raw, unfettered, conversational tone. So if you read an Over a Beer column that you think is missing something—guess what? That’s where you join the conversation! Share your insight, expand on what may be a brief or—let’s face it—simply shoddy discussion of a topic, by chiming in with your own insights, thoughts, and opinions in the comments section.

We are having conversation over a beer, after all.

Oh, and by the way, I totally encourage beer-drinking as you read these columns. And I’ll try to crack a cold one myself before reading through the comments section.

Friday, May 15, 2015

In case you were unaware, I want to fill you in: my latest personal project has been building an Instagram account. At this point it's hardly new, with 324+ photos posted and 627+ followers. But unlike some things that start and then barely get off the ground, I've thoroughly been enjoying Instagram, and I don't see my efforts there diminishing anytime soon.

For one thing, it's basic: posting photos of beautiful places and cool experiences is something I've been doing for many, many years anyways, and bringing it to this platform is easy and seamless. However, it can be as intricate as you want to make it: interacting with people and participating in hashtags and challenges adds an entertaining dimension that I really enjoy.

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